442 HYSTERIA. 



dows should be thrown open for a time. It will be soon enough to 

 go for " comforts " after the spasm relaxes. If it seems necessary, 

 the hands and arms should be confined. If the patient can be 

 made to swallow, the sooner she gets agood dose of cold water the bet- 

 ter. If it is at all practicable, she should at once be placed in the 

 shallow-bath, or, what answers very well, a good-sized wash-tub, the 

 feet being left outside, if the tub is not very large. If the patient 

 is quite feeble, the water may be moderately warm, but afterward 

 it is to be used colder. In the water she is to be rubbed with as 

 many wet hands as can be brought to bear upon her body, limbs, 

 hands and every other part. The sufferings of the patient are more 

 apparent than real and there is no need of the sympathies of the 

 attendants being so much excited as to interfere with the work on 

 hand. 



After the spasms become quelled, the patient should be placed 

 in a folded wet sheet. This may appear uncomfortable to her at 

 first; but, with the most mathematical certainty, it will soothe her 

 system, and that too in a remarkable degree, if everything is man- 

 aged as it should be. After the spasms are off, she should be made 

 comfortable, and if the teet are cold they should be heated with hot 

 bricks or other means. 



One of the best means of producing a powerfully sedative and 

 anti-spasmodic effect in these cases, is to pour cold water freely 

 upon the head. With care that this is not continued after the spasm 

 has abated there will be no danger of doing harm. Dr. Smee, a 

 celebrated surgeon of London, who recommends this practice, says 

 that he once saw cold water applied in. this way for three hours, and 

 the patient was quite well the next day. In some cases water 

 should not be poured from a height; passive cooling only is what is 

 needed, as a local application, in all affections of the head. A wash 

 tub, instead of a bowl, should be used to receive the water, and we 

 may use the same over and over again, if desirable; but it should 

 not be allowed to get too warm. 



In some cases the shallow-bath and the wash-tub can not be 

 used; either they are not at hand, or the patient may be so unman- 

 ageable that she cannot be operated on in this way. We have, then, 

 other and valuable resources for hydropathy is not a one-remedy, 

 as ignorant objectors have so often said. We have many and varied 

 applications, and no two of them have precisely the same effects. 

 But any one who understands the symptoms thoroughly, will never 

 be at a loss as to what to do; he will be certain or doing at least 

 some good, and no harm. In these supposed cases, then, the 

 patient can be laid upon a bed, couch, cot, or the floor, even upon a 

 blanket, or something of that sort, while at the same time she is 

 powerfully rubbed with rubbing wet-sheets; these should be 

 changed often, so as to keep the water as fresh as may be. Even 

 wet-hand rubbing, wet-towel rubbing, and the like, are very good 

 substitutes for the shallow-bath. 



